


Both Four

by rymyanna



Series: Ache [3]
Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Banter, Canon Compliant, Developing Relationship, Dreamsharing, Gen, Healing, M/M, Magic, Moon, Post-Season/Series 02, Soul Bond, Touching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-19 16:22:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18973639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rymyanna/pseuds/rymyanna
Summary: Gradually, Viren’s life starts looking less bleak and his friendship with Aaravos grows, but into what, he doesn’t know. It lies just beyond his perception, as does everything. (continues Both For One)





	Both Four

**Author's Note:**

> More of this (I'm excited and I hope someone else out there is, too)!  
> I'd like to clarify (just in case) that I like Callum, he's a good kid, but I don't think Viren likes him and that's why the narration gets a bit snooty.

The change began when Viren climbed out his self-dug hole enough to realize that Aaravos was a fan of casual contact. Nothing extravagant at first, just small gestures; hand on shoulder in passing or when he wanted to lead Viren somewhere.

Viren wasn’t a touchy-feely guy, but he could make an effort. So he started returning the hand on shoulder gesture. He braved brushing some of Aaravos’ hair out of his eyes, which was pushing it a little. It felt like a personal triumph when his friend smiled at him in response. Viren didn’t know what he had been expecting, but Aaravos just felt like a person when he dared to get close enough to initiate contact.

It lead to them walking closer and sitting closer and just brushing past each other whenever they were in the same space. Viren suspected that they were both going out of their way to make it happen. He’d never admit it, and Aaravos was possibly the least straightforward person he had ever met, counting all the kings and their lackeys he had spend far too much time around. So, they both evaded the topic.

“You spend a lot of time in here,” Aaravos said, referring to the Moon Nexus library. He joined Viren, sitting behind a pile of books next to one of the moon rune walls.

Viren glanced up from his reading. “Yes, well, I can only have Lujanne offer me dessert so many times before I need to know how she manages it.” Once, out of curiosity, he had accepted. It had been delicious. There were ways to change how things appeared with Dark Magic, but how they tasted, too? That had to be some next level spellwork.  

“I’m not surprised you are so interested.”

This time, he didn’t look away from the books. “Why?”

“A life full of appearances.”

“You can’t really blame me. I lived in court, it’s all appearances.” People needed to tell what rank someone else was in relation to them to know how to act, who they could push around and who they should defer to. Who they could be friends with. Aaravos and him, they were both high ranking mages and Viren had been a lord, and now they were both criminals. Roughly the same rank, friend material. “Though, I would have liked,” he paused to choose his words and went with, “A less brutal wake-up call.”

Aaravos shifted, their arms brushing against each other. “Sometimes the brutal way is the only way.”

The statement made Viren give his friend the attention he was after, turning his head so they could lock eyes. “You know when you say things like that, you sound like a villain.”

Aaravos’ gaze got the mischievous glint Viren had grown to both adore and fear. “Or like you.”

During their-- _short? How long has it been?_ \-- acquaintance, Viren had eventually caught on that he shouldn’t take every bait Aaravos laid out for him. He smirked. “We were meant to be.” The way Aaravos smiled back told Viren that maybe the bait had been hiding another bait all along.

“Finally caught on, have you.”

Viren huffed, but he was smiling, too, because his face became a dirty traitor around his friend. “You’re a menace.”

“So I have been told.”

“By who?” The question was a cheap ploy, but it didn’t matter that Aaravos could see right through it. They were just talking. Close, alone.

“Oh, several people.”

“It seems to me you’re the type to be the best friend a person’s ever had, or their worst enemy.” It was the obvious conclusion to make, from how they had blasted through those guards, way back in the beginning. From how Aaravos treated their enemies with such casual cruelty, versus how he treated Viren. “I’m not judging, just glad to be in the former category.” The implications of that, _Not going there._ He turned back to his reading.

After a moment of staring, Aaravos rested his chin on Viren’s shoulder to read with him. Viren used to worry about the horns, but he trusted Aaravos to know where they were relative to his scalp. Now he just sighed and relaxed.

“You don’t have a significant other that could die in a horrible accident, do you?” Viren asked, once he admitted that he couldn’t concentrate with his latest worries weighing him down.

Aaravos reached over to turn the page. “I do not.”

“That’s good.”    

(6)

Since Aaravos was unable to leave well enough alone and let Viren move on with his life, they spent a lot of time rehashing all of Viren’s past mistakes. It didn’t make him feel great, but at least he wasn’t trapped in the echo chamber of his own head.

The topic this time was the lesser prince.

“Prince Callum?” Viren asked, frowning at the view across the Moon Nexus lake. During the day, it just looked like a crater full of water. Which was what it was, objectively. “Claudia gets along with him well, but I haven’t spent much time with him.” He had been the advisor, not the babysitter. Next to him, his friend glanced away from the view, at him.

“He is a good friend of your daughter’s and your former good friend’s son,” Aaravos wondered out loud. Viren raised an eyebrow back at him, but he did have a point.

“Step son,” Viren corrected automatically. “I am aware that I’m not going to win any good person awards, believe me.” He should’ve tried harder to find time to spend with his kids, get to know their friends, but his duty to the kingdom had come first.

“You are alike.”

“How do you figure?” Viren turned to lean on the railing, to better face Aaravos. “Do you just read other people’s mail and spy on them on your little information gathering trips?”

“My little information gathering trips,” Aaravos repeated, taking his eyes off the lake and fixing them on Viren.

“When you leave,” he clarified, though he was sure his friend knew what he was talking about. “Maybe you mix in a bit of light meddling?”

“Perhaps, for the sake of variety.”

“Naturally.” Lately, he had started feeling a lot less confrontational when faced with Aaravos’ undivided attention and penchant to bring up sore issues. Instead, he felt somehow softer in a way he couldn’t pinpoint and refused to analyze. “In any case, I’d feel a bit awkward about just going up to him and starting a conversation, especially now.”

“Talk to me about it,” Aaravos requested.

Viren studied him for a moment before confessing,  “I tried to have him and his brother killed.” When Aaravos didn’t look appalled, merely curious, he went on, “In retrospect, I realize that was a hasty move and I’m glad it didn’t work out.” Saying that it had seemed like a good idea at the time was a terrible excuse.

Aaravos leaned in, as though ready to tell Viren a secret. “He doesn’t know,” he said, with his tiny know-it-all smirk.

And he wouldn’t, unless Soren spread it around. Viren took a stray strand of hair, fallen loose from under Aaravos’ robe, to play with. “I’ll be sure to not tell him.” It was soft, and he felt strangely comfortable for someone leaning on stone while a tall, cosmic being loomed over him. “I’m starving.”

“For what?”

Viren raised an eyebrow. “Food? I haven’t had lunch yet.” It had to be at least noon, how long had they been standing there?

“Of course,” Aaravos stepped back and Viren released his hair. “I have some spying and light meddling to attend to.”

Disappointed that he’d either have to find Lujanne or eat alone, Viren pat his friend on the arm as he passed. “Alright, see you tonight.”

(7)

At bedtime, Aaravos joined him. The first time, it had been alarming, and Viren hadn’t known how to react. Now, sleeping without him was a challenge. Which, in its own way, was also alarming and made Viren unsure of how he should react.

One way for Aaravos to sleep on his side, was for him to rest his head on Viren so that his horns didn’t poke holes in the bedding. Viren was reasonably sure it wasn’t the only way, there had to be other ways to elevate the head than using his head as a pillow.

“I feel so used,” Viren said, without any real annoyance behind the words.

“This has been my sinister plan all along,” Aaravos responded. This close, his voice vibrated through Viren. While the feeling tapped into some primal part of him that wanted to flee or fight, he was too tired and relaxed to do either.

“To acquire a literal body pillow?”

“Exactly.”

“I commend your ruthless efficiency.”

Aaravos giggled and Viren tried to hide his grin into the pillow, _cute_.  

“Now, kindly shut up and let me sleep,” was what he said aloud, closing his eyes. He felt his friend scooting a bit closer and laying a hand on the scar on his chest, left by the ritual. Sleep took him, and he dreamed.

He was standing on a field of grass. Green as far as he could see, the sky above a brewing storm. Someone was standing in the distance, and for a lack of anything else to do, he started walking towards them.

As he grew near, the person looked away from the sky, at him. They were standing next to each other, it was Prince Callum. It made sense; dreams were weird.

“Looks like a storm is coming,” Viren said just as it started to rain. It wasn’t raining on the boy.

“Joke’s on you, I’m connected to the Sky Arcanum,” Callum said, triumphant and dry.

Viren must have misheard. “Excuse me?”

“Uh, the Sky Arcanum?” the prince explained, awkward as always. “I can do sky magic.” He demonstrated by sending a cold gust of wind towards Viren. “It’s usually not this easy, though.”

“Well, this is a dream.” Which was good; he couldn’t catch a cold in a dream.

Callum glanced around before giving him a suspicious look. “Huh, that’s weird. My dreams are usually about, uh,” he interrupted himself. “Uuuh, someone else you don’t know and who isn’t related to you at all.”

Viren raised an eyebrow. “Right.” He could make an educated guess, but since Claudia was safe in the castle and this kid was all the way in Xadia, it was no cause for immediate concern.

“Why are you here, anyway?” Callum asked. “Wait, are you here?”

And he had heard so many stories about what a bright young man the prince was. “Neither of us is here, as in an actual field, this is a dream. You’re asleep somewhere, obviously,” he explained. As to the why, he had his suspicions, but Callum didn’t need to know any of them.

“That makes sense, I guess. But it doesn’t explain the why.”

Viren rolled his eyes, “It’s one of the many mysteries the universe presents us.” They’d need to have some words, about throwing him into meeting people without talking it through with him first. They could do it when he woke up; Aaravos had gotten into the habit of being there in the morning. “Tell me about the Sky Arcanum, how did that come about?” Might as well learn something.

“Basically I did some dark magic, fell into a weird sleep state, did some soul searching, woke up, and understood the meaning of sky,” the boy ranted, waving his arms around. “How it’s inside us and all around us and how we’re inside it.”   

It was like the moment came into sharp focus, like he’d never looked directly at Prince Callum before. Their surroundings shifted. They stood on the Moon Nexus lake, full moon a spot light on the rippling water.

“Um, Lord Viren?” Callum spoke, “What’s wrong? You look like you’ve never seen grass before.”

Viren had been staring at the waters beneath, but when he looked into the prince’s eyes, he saw the reflection of the stormy field. His brain was playing tricks on him.

What had Aaravos said? _A life full of appearances._

He woke up, jostled Aaravos as he sat and took his friend by the arms. “It’s not so much the illusion itself, it’s the one looking at it. You see a cake, you’re primed to eat cake, to taste cake. It’d actually be harder to convince someone the cake tasted like worms because there’s a disconnect, in your mind, you’re not expecting worms, it’s cake!”

Aaravos looked less like he had just been woken up and more like his favorite holiday had arrived early. “Incidentally, the moon is waxing.”

“It is, I need,” Viren grabbed the pillow and struggled with the runes for a frustrating moment. He wouldn’t have believed it’d work if he hadn’t been the one doing it. Presenting his creation to Aaravos he asked, “Would you care for this very real sandwich?” It was a bit pillow-like around the edges, but he’d get it right.

His friend played along, “What an actual sandwich, I would love some.”

Viren showed it on his face. It broke the illusion but didn’t quite muffle Aaravos’ laughter. “That’s for thrusting me into situations without consulting me first.” Pillow to the face was a move of a much younger man; it didn’t matter, he wasn’t feeling his age.

“Anything for a friend,” Aaravos said as he pushed the pillow away, eyes glinting in the faint light of the moon.  

 


End file.
